


fools

by hyuckios



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, annoying roommates, college boys, jaemin is a fool for donghyuck, tiny bit of sexual tension, while donghyuck is a fool for jaemin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-11-02 01:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20574992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyuckios/pseuds/hyuckios
Summary: Na Jaemin gets a little restless over the fact that he is totally, unapologetically in love with his best friend.





	fools

**Author's Note:**

> enjoooooy
> 
> ( and let me know what u think )

With the amount of time Jaemin spends at the shop, anyone would begin to wonder if he's got grease in his veins. 

As a child, Jaemin adored spending hours watching his father work on cars. Small ones always had a careful and safe place in Jaemin's heart--he really just felt bad for them, since most of the people in their town were looking for bigger cars. He'd name them silly names that hardly made any sense, but also names that stuck and were thrown around by all of his father's employees. Sometimes he'd go red at the fact that the workers in the shop would be shouting the comical names that Jaemin had just come up with. 

He'd have rows and rows of model cars in his closet, and he'd even draw his favorites on the blank spaces of his worksheets from class. Granted, he would get shut down quite often by his teacher, but she'd constantly keep his energy up, encouraging him to become the greatest auto shop owner in the whole country. Jaemin would look her in the eyes and smile, moving on to tell her that he will never be the greatest shop owner, since that role has already been filled by his father. 

Jaemin fell out of love with the shop when he entered high school. It wasn’t fun for him anymore. It was exhausting, and not to mention demanding on him and his family. His parents would constantly bicker over the smallest things involving the store, and Jaemin started to hate being there. 

It was rough, especially when he started his official job there, earning money to slip into his skinny pockets. The moment he was put on the floor as an official employee was the moment the entire shop worshipped him. Jaemin loved the popularity and the fact that these people, who had been working in the shop for years, suddenly were down on their knees for Na Jaemin. 

The money was pleasing, but his attitude stayed solemn. The job ran over smoothly in Jaemin’s head, he just truly hated the environment. His father would always tell Jaemin to suck it up; so he did. 

He always hated change, so a routine was the perfect picture in his life. School, work, home. Repeat.

The need to work happened fast, though. 

Anytime Jaemin was overwhelmed from school, or pissed off at a friend, he’d make his way to the shop. Most of the time, there would be a couple workers who needed to stay late to finish up one of the cars, but none of them would question the soft swear words off their bosses son’s lips. They knew that Jaemin’s release was repairing the cars, letting the dirt and grime stick to skin until the early hours of the morning. 

It wasn’t long until his father lost the desire to continue the shop. By the time Jaemin was 18, his father had made plenty of money, and he was ready to retire. If it were up to him, he would have destroyed the entire building. Jaemin’s kind heart wouldn’t let him do it, so he took over its entirety. 

Even now, at the age of 21, Jaemin finds himself trying to escape his worries, slipping deep into thought with his back hard on the concrete, half underneath the car, dirt across his skin and in the crevices of his nose. 

“Boss, you locking up?” The voice is startling, but Jaemin recognizes it almost instantly, and he’s able to relax without accidentally banging his head against the bar above him. 

His arms rest against the floor as he cranes his neck, hearing a few satisfying cracks here and there. He’s nearly completed his job, but there’s something telling him to break something - just so he can stay longer. 

“Yeah, I’ll lock up.” 

His phone vibrates in his back pocket so much to the point where Jaemin starts to worry. He’s not used to getting any texts, so the surplus of them in such a short span of time makes him roll his eyes with a deep and throaty groan. He knows he’s alone in the shop since he had heard the main door slam shut just seconds ago, so he lets himself grunt, a little too loud.

He pushes his scooter out from under the car, his t-shirt riding up as its loose string gets caught. 

The buzzing is inviting, but Jaemin has no desire to speak to whoever the hell is on the other side of the head-splitting ring. 

It takes a few glances and a look of pure confusion for the boy to comprehend that he has a phone call. Without any thought, Jaemin swipes his thumb across the screen and lifts the phone up to his ear. 

“What is it?” The hiss is like fire squeezing through two glaciers of ice, it’s raw, but Jaemin doesn’t bother explaining himself. 

The line drips with silence but then rains with a chuckle. 

“I know you’re kinda angry with me, or stressed, or just being annoying by not answering my texts, but I wanted to know if you want any of that chicken you usually order from the Thai place we like?” The honey is sweet, and Jaemin craves it, so he lets the smallest smile climb up his neck to present itself right on his lips. 

“Hi, Hyuck.” Jaemin’s back still lies flat on the scooter, but he finally sits up and lets his posture lazily fall forward. 

The boy through the phone giggles as though he’s in a rush, shuffling around as he drags his feet across the tiled floor. It’s easy for Jaemin to be able to tell such a thing, since Donghyuck has quite the habit of dragging his feet against the floor of their apartment. He picks up the sound even in the earliest and most ungodly hours of the morning, when the kid is desperately in need of a glass of water. He picks it up over the sound of the high pressured water that beats against his chest late at night as he tries to scrape the dirt from his body. Donghyuck is sometimes just too loud for Jaemin’s liking. But he'd never want any different. 

He hums against the phone and feels it bounce right back on his lips, tickling them kindly. 

“Whatever you think.” Jaemin is already halfway back underneath the car by the time he gives his full answer, only to receive an unsatisfied groan. “Fine, yes. Please. But put it in the fridge for me because I'm not hungry.” 

Donghyuck cheers as he bids Jaemin goodbye, telling him not to stay too late, and adding his favorite line, “make sure you come home to me.” 

Jaemin hates the way his friend’s words wrap around his heart, squeezing the living shit out of it. The words dig their claws deep into every twist and turn of his heart, and Jaemin can’t help but wish that Donghyuck could do that with his touches and his affection. Donghyuck is touchy, no doubt, but sometimes Jaemin wants him to be touchy in a bit more than a friendly way. Granted, he jokes about it a lot, but the majority of the time... Jaemin cuts the joke before it gets awkward. 

He shivers under the car and screws his head on straight, at this point, just wanting to get home to Donghyuck gives him enough motivation to complete his project. 

The garage doors are always hard for Jaemin to shut, since one of his guys somehow keeps forgetting to clean off the chain so it doesn't slip in Jaemin's hand every night. He swears as his hand hits the side of his thigh, desperately scraping the grease off his fingertips so he can shoot Donghyuck a text, letting him know that he's on his way home. 

Although he works in a car shop, Jaemin loves walking to work. It's just a few blocks away, and Jaemin doesn't see the point in wasting gas just to get down the road. 

At night, the streets light up in the prettiest poems, colors floating like styrofoam boats on water. Jaemin swallows the beauty in whole, and he sucks in a deep breath as the cool and crisp air swims through him in an orderly manner. It's barely moved into August, but the clouds need their own blankets with the temperature that floats around them. 

Jaemin always brings a hoodie to work -- well, Donghyuck's hoodie, but for some reason, his rough morning made him forget to snag it before he left through the door. 

Jaemin has always been a fool for wrapping himself in Donghyuck's things. When it's four in the morning, after Jaemin's had an awful nightmare, he'll tiptoe across the apartment and slowly push Donghyuck's door open. He slides in carefully, but even if he was to be loud, there's absolutely no way that Donghyuck would wake up. Jaemin takes this to his advantage, because he can easily cuddle his way into the boy's side, and Donghyuck won't move a muscle. On occasion though, Jaemin will purposely elbow him in the side, because Donghyuck has a tendency to wake up, groan, and pull whatever is next to him a lot closer. In most cases, it's a warm body that Donghyuck has absolutely no problem cuddling with. 

When he reaches the apartment, Jaemin feels the weight on his chest, growing and growing, and desperate to take over his entire being. 

"Fuck off," his voice is quiet as he makes a strong attempt at trying not to scare the woman ten feet away from him, "please?" 

His heart rattles in his chest when he reaches the door. The faint sound of music can be heard from under the door, and Jaemin chuckles at how innocent Lee Donghyuck can be sometimes. The key suddenly doesn't fit in the door, like either the key is too big or the keyhole shrunk right before his eyes. It's only then when he realizes that he's trying to put the wrong key in his door. 

Na Jaemin is a little too nervous to get home. 

"Oh! You're here?" Donghyuck practically screeches when Jaemin makes his appearance in the kitchen. 

Donghyuck stands there, Jaemin's hoodie over his head, with nothing else but socks on his feet and a little frosting on his upper lip. There's white fluttering across the sleeves of the hoodie, but Jaemin finds it admirable because Donghyuck really isn't the cleanest baker. 

"Don't look." Donghyuck steps forward, and Jaemin only gets a glimpse of his sweater paws before they are thrown over his eyes. 

Jaemin gasps, but breathes in the familiar scent of his (well, Donghyuck's) hoodie. He bites down on Donghyuck's finger, trying to get the boy to pull away, but he doesn't budge. He won't.

"What on earth are you doing?" Jaemin asks. 

Donghyuck grunts and twists Jaemin's body until he's no longer facing the kitchen, and finally he brings his hands down. Jaemin has to blink a few times until his vision realigns itself, but now all he can see is the bright smile across his roommate's face. 

"You smell like shit, by the way." Donghyuck's eyes glow as he speaks and Jaemin finds himself already diving deep into them. 

He whines, well, internally, but Jaemin whines at the clear galaxy behind Donghyuck's eyes. His knees go weak, but that's also because Donghyuck is an asshole and has already swung his leg around so he can kick Jaemin in the direction of the shower. 

"Answer me!" Jaemin chuckles as he throws his middle finger up behind him, getting a constant nagging from Donghyuck reminding him not to look. 

"Your birthday is this weekend." Donghyuck's voice is sweet and airy and Jaemin can almost taste the way it calms him down, the way it relaxes every muscle in his body. He's so goddamn sweet, and Jaemin has quite the sweet tooth. 

He melts a little at the fact that Donghyuck has wrapped himself in a popular hoodie and is in the process of baking something special for Jaemin's upcoming birthday. The older boy has always been one to make his friends gifts, over buying them one and having it mean half as much. He always finds the time to make his own card as well, something special to his heart. He covers the card in an excessive amount of stickers and spills out a lot of hidden emotions. It's sweet, but sometimes he will purposely leave out the stickers and write the goofiest phrase just so he can piss off whoever he is giving the card to. 

"Now go take a shower." 

"I'm lazy, though." 

Donghyuck furrows his eyebrows at Jaemin, but puffs his chest at the same time so he can show his strength and his annoyance at the fact that his friend will not climb into the shower and clean himself up. Jaemin raises his eyebrows, but he doesn't last very long against Donghyuck, who already begins to walk forward in an intimidating way. 

Jaemin aggressively pouts and makes his way to the restroom, flicking on the lights and staring at himself in the mirror. It only takes the smallest lift of his shirt to realize that, Donghyuck was right, he really does stink. There's grease stains on his shirt, across his collarbones, dirt and scrapes up his forearms. His hair is an absolute mess once he takes his cap off, and he smells like a mix between dirt and sweat. 

He lets the hot water slide down his body, and he closes his eyes to feel the relaxation a little stronger. The muscles in his back are tense, and even the water doesn't subside the pain he feels when he bends down to scrape the dirt from his shins. 

He keeps his eyes sealed shut as he thinks about Donghyuck, thinks about Donghyuck standing in front of him in the shower, giggling and reaching his hands out to help Jaemin wash his hair. He thinks about the way Donghyuck would hate how hot the water is, or how Donghyuck would purposely let the soap drip down into his own eyes, and how he'd move on to blame Jaemin not even a second later. 

His heart nearly stops when he hears the door crack open. He holds his breath too, because for some reason, Jaemin thinks that Donghyuck won't notice that he's literally naked in the shower a few feet away. There's something in Jaemin's brain that hopes Donghyuck will just draw the curtain back and join him, so he can live all his thoughts. 

"Hey Jaem?" Donghyuck sounds a little confused, and his tone is unfamiliar to Jaemin. 

Jaemin pauses. 

He debates on whether or not he should respond.

"Yeah, Hyuck?"

"I fucked up your cake."

Jaemin bursts out laughing. He really expected Donghyuck to say something disappointing, or to announce that he was coming in the shower, but hearing about his baking failures really just makes Jaemin chuckle. 

"Don't laugh!" 

The water on Jaemin's back gets a lot cooler all of a sudden, and he hisses as he realizes that Donghyuck has turned the sink on. Jaemin draws the curtain back just until he can poke his head out and stares at Donghyuck with half a smile. 

Donghyuck sits on the counter and kicks his feet forward, letting his heels hit gently against the counter. He sits on his hands as well, and looks over at Jaemin with his bottom lip tucked in between his teeth. 

It's times like these where Jaemin has no idea where his confidence sparks from. Most of the time his heart thumps carefully in his chest, his skin throbs, and his hands shake when he speaks to Donghyuck. There's other times where Donghyuck seems like the most innocent boy in the entire world. Things feel absolutely comfortable in each other's presence, and Jaemin feels at home. Donghyuck always feels like home. 

"It's okay, Hyuck." He pulls the curtain back to it's normal spot and washes out the shampoo in his hair before it gets into his eyes.

There's a heavy silence that floats around the bathroom, except for the water that bounces off of Jaemin's body and the floor beneath his feet. 

"Can you hurry up?" Donghyuck asks as though he's in a hurry. 

"Did you wanna shower too?" 

"No, I just wanna lay down with you. I wanna cuddle." 

Jaemin would easily say that Donghyuck has the ability to make him feel very hot all of a sudden. He looks good at the most random times, when he's heading out for the night with his friends, hair tucked into a beanie and hands hidden in the pockets of his ripped jeans. Jaemin feels hot looking at Donghyuck in a sleeveless shirt while they work out next to one another. Donghyuck, apparently also has the ability to make Jaemin's insides grow hot in the middle of his shower. He's so warm that suddenly the shower feels more than cold. 

He takes a deep breath and is thankful that there is a curtain between them, because he'd rather Donghyuck not see the way he's blushing like a fool. 

There's something that doesn't feel warm inside of him though. In fact, it rots in his gut and pains him immensely. Donghyuck wants to cuddle. It's nothing out of the ordinary, but Jaemin knows he wants to cuddle as friends. He knows that Donghyuck will cuddle with him, and then go sleep with someone else the next night. It's nothing new. 

Jaemin doesn't answer. 

He huffs and chomps down on his bottom lip. He starts to say something, but he cuts himself short. There's no way he's having this conversation while he's naked in the shower with his best friend that he has feelings for just a few feet away.

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

"No, say it." Donghyuck sounds like he's desperate, and it only hurts Jaemin more. 

He sucks in a deep breath and faces the hot water, letting it hit his face with maybe a little too much pressure. It feels good. It definitely feels better than the arrows that Donghyuck is shooting right in Jaemin's chest. 

"What's the point?" Jaemin pushes it out. He slaps a hand right over his face the next moment. 

Well, Jaemin must really be having this conversation with his best friend while he's naked in the shower. 

"What is that supposed to mean?" Donghyuck is defensive when he speaks, but Jaemin doesn't blame him. He has every right to be. 

"You want me to lay with you, probably, right? You want me to come cuddle with you while we watch a movie and both get a little too sleepy to finish it, right? You want to play with my fingers and nuzzle your nose into my neck while my heart freaks the fuck out and while yours stays normal, right? You want to make me feel a whole bunch of shit, and then come home tomorrow night to talk about how you fucked that guy from your 8am, right? What's the point, Donghyuck?"

Jaemin stares blankly at the wall in front of him, chest rising and falling at an alarming rate. 

Donghyuck stays silent on the other side of the curtain. 

"Would you stop wasting our water and put some damn clothes on so I can properly explain how the fuck I'm in love with you?" 

Jaemin's knees go weak when he hears the words come out of Donghyuck's mouth. It doesn't even sound like him, Jaemin is absolutely sure that Donghyuck has suddenly been replaced with an alien version of himself. Regardless of who the fuck is sitting on the counter, Jaemin hates them for making a darker blush creep up his neck to sit so unkindly on his cheeks. 

The door slams not but 5 seconds later, and Jaemin hurries to shut the water off. He hurries to wrap his towel around his body, because he wants to hurry over to Donghyuck's room to do... something. He doesn't know what, just knows he wants to do something. 

But there's something deeper inside of him that tells him to move slowly, to build up the anticipation that's probably spinning around in Donghyuck's head. Unlike Donghyuck, Jaemin always brings his clothes into the bathroom so he can walk out fully dressed. He does everything even slower than usual, mainly to confuse Donghyuck, but also because he doesn't even know if his weak legs will make it to the bedroom. 

He brushes his teeth, combs his hair, all achingly slow until he finally has the courage to walk out to Donghyuck. But when Jaemin makes his way into Donghyuck's room, he sees absolutely nothing underneath the thick blanket that Donghyuck is so fond of. 

"I'm in your bed, dummy." Donghyuck's voice is tired when he speaks. Jaemin can only assume that, unless Donghyuck has been crying for the past fifteen minutes. 

Jaemin doesn't say anything about the room being cold to his liking, but not to Donghyuck's. Donghyuck absolutely hates when the temperature is low, but it's obvious that he's sucked it up to get comfortable in Jaemin's bed. It's only his eyes that poke out from underneath Jaemin's sheets. He's cold, no doubt, and Jaemin craves the comfort he'll feel when he goes to warm the boy up. 

He presses his knee into the bed and stares at Donghyuck in the barely lit room. It's almost as though the moonlight from the window is causing tiny sparkles to breathe along Donghyuck's jawline. He looks beautiful lying there, and he looks even prettier looking up at Jaemin.

Donghyuck lifts his hand from under the cover and presses it on Jaemin's thigh. Jaemin's breath hitches in his throat and his shoulders lift, ignoring the way the touch burns. Donghyuck's hand crawls up Jaemin's thigh until it rests at the cloth material right along his hip. He pinches it in his hand and tugs hard until Jaemin gets the idea and falls into bed next to him. 

The blankets feel so much warmer than usual, and Jaemin thinks about how he could easily get used to it in this nature. 

They stare at one another, eyes speaking with such bold voices, hands speaking in such soft tones. Jaemin reaches forward until his fingers push Donghyuck's shirt up just a tad, just until he can rub his thumb there, feeling the smooth skin under his touch. 

Donghyuck fiddles with Jaemin's necklace and easily lets his fingers drag across the boy's collarbones. Carefully, Donghyuck moves his fingers up until they rest on Jaemin's cheek. The younger pushes his lip out as if he's asking for Donghyuck to look at it, touch it, maybe even kiss it, but Donghyuck moves slowly, oh so slowly, and Jaemin doesn't think his heart has ever pounded this goddamn fast. 

"Donghyuck.." Jaemin has trouble trying to get the name out, especially because Donghyuck has already surrendered his thumb on Jaemin's bottom lip. The friction causes Jaemin's lip to buzz in Donghyuck's hold, but Jaemin can hardly feel anything other than the naive look that Donghyuck gives him when he pushes his thumb until it barely touches Jaemin's tongue. Jaemin hollows his cheeks for a split second and Donghyuck responds by yanking his thumb out and swearing under his breath. 

"Fuck, Jaem," Donghyuck bites down on his lip as his eyes scan across Jaemin's lips, "I really want to kiss you right now."

Jaemin's chest fills with fire, sizzles with the hottest molten lava to ever exist, and he's sure that smoke is completely visible bouncing off his chest. 

"Then, do it." Jaemin feels lost in the moment, and only wants to bring himself back to life by the presence of Lee Donghyuck, who is more of a home than any place possible. 

Jaemin has never been good at holding his breath. He's never been one who is fond of swimming, because he hates keeping his head above the water. He remembers a feeling, such an intense feeling in his crowded head, and a feeling he never wanted to feel again. Coming up for air after being underwater, after forcing himself how to train so he can get better at it, and feeling how refreshing it was to suddenly suck in the clearest breath of fresh air he ever has before. He feels it when Donghyuck leans forward to press his lips right up against his own, but Donghyuck pulls away only an instant later. 

"Jaemin." Donghyuck's lips glow in the moonlight from the slightest pressure of a kiss, but it's pretty, oh so pretty, and Jaemin has the urge to make them glow even more, and maybe even turn them a darker color. 

Jaemin hums in response, but his mouth chases Donghyuck's with the desire to feel a little more of the boy he is in love with. He whines when Donghyuck lays a hand on his chest to hold him back. 

"I know you're eager, but you gotta give me a second to tell you how I feel." Donghyuck giggles as Jaemin's lips graze against his own. It vibrates between them and Donghyuck twists his own fingers in Jaemin's hair as he tugs a little, making the smallest of moans come off of his lips. Donghyuck lets out a harder laugh as he realizes the scene he has set up. 

Jaemin stands down and gently lets his hands move to Donghyuck's chest, petting over the collar of his shirt. There's a lot to say on Jaemin's end, but he can't find the power to even open his mouth in that moment. But, he does it anyway. 

"Donghyuck, you drive me crazy and I am so very in love with you." 

Donghyuck bites on his tongue and rolls his eyes, intertwining his fingers with Jaemin's. Jaemin brings their twisted hands to his mouth so he can drag his lips along Donghyuck's knuckles. He kisses up Donghyuck's middle finger until he reaches the top, putting it between his teeth. Donghyuck must have a different interpretation of what will happen next because his cheeks are so red and his hands are nearly shaking. 

Jaemin, however, bites down until Donghyuck retracts his finger and flicks him on the forehead. 

"God, I can't stand you."

"Yeah, but you can. You want to." Jaemin raises an eyebrow with the goofiest smile he's ever presented. 

Donghyuck squints his eyes, throws his head back, and pulls himself forward so he can press his lips kindly to Jaemin's forehead. 

"You're a pain in my ass, but yes, I want to." His eyes sparkle as he says it, and Jaemin feels his heart clench in too many ways, ways that he'd like to feel over and over again.

"Then fucking kiss me already."

Donghyuck does. A lot.


End file.
